About
Russell Sommers, CPA, CISA, is a Principal at Baker Tilly, where he leads the firm's New York financial services risk advisory practice. A recognized subject matter expert in governance, risk, and compliance, Russ began his career as a financial statement auditor before transitioning to risk advisory during the Sarbanes-Oxley era, bringing a uniquely grounded perspective to the complex regulatory environments his clients navigate.
With more than 20 years of experience serving insurance, banking, financial services, and their supporting technology organizations, Russ helps clients navigate governance, risk, and compliance expectations with a specialization in IT risk and cybersecurity. On the insurance regulatory front, he leads Baker Tilly's IT and cybersecurity examinations practice, executing IT and cyber examinations on behalf of more than 30 state departments of insurance. His fluency spans a broad range of regulatory and industry frameworks, including NAIC, SEC, NIST, FINRA, CFTC, NY DFS Part 500, ISO, COBIT, and GDPR, and he regularly trains financial services regulators and examiners on how to conduct examinations addressing emerging regulations.
Russ has led a broad array of engagements including internal controls advisory, internal audit, cybersecurity and regulatory compliance consulting, information technology audit and risk assessment, vendor risk management, enterprise risk management, and SOC 1/2 reporting. He specializes in establishing sustainable governance models that address regulatory and compliance expectations while preserving the organizational agility needed to succeed — bringing transparency to boards and executive management by putting structure around complex, unstructured environments. Russ is also a leader in Baker Tilly's digital asset practice, having consulted on exchange-traded cryptocurrency funds, national securities exchanges, digital asset technology platforms and other participants in the digital asset ecosystem.